I write for the same reason I breathe – because if I didn't, I would die. Isaac Asimov

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November 30th and I’ve finished NaNoWriMo 2016 with 50,620 words! Even though this is the fifth Nano I’ve won, it is still quite a natural high. Every time I finish a novel and write The End, I feel like I’ve just reached the summit of Mt. Everest.

This month offered a variety of challenges that threatened my nano word count. I started the month with a migraine that lasted several days and ended it with food poisoning. Also the first weekend in November my kids and grand baby moved back from Japan.

I decided that if I was going to finish (failure was not an option) I needed to maximize whatever time I could find. At work I reserved the conference room to use on my lunch hour so I had a full hour to write undisturbed. I was able to get a good 1200 -1400 words in each lunchtime.

In the evenings I never knew when I came home if my kids and grand baby would be waiting for me. So the nights I was free, I concentrated on writing as much as I could. With such small snippets of time I needed to get into the flow of writing quickly.

I’d been reading the book FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In it he explains many concepts about flow and enjoyment of life. I noticed that getting into the flow of writing, that place where I’m totally immersed in my fictional world and can write 1200 to 5000 words in a few hours, is total enjoyment for me. Which of course, since enjoyable, encouraged me to write anytime I could find. I didn’t have any issues with so-called writer’s block, or procrastination.

Csikszentmihalyi also talks about this flow experience as not only affecting our enjoyment of life, but to our contribution to the world around us:

“Flow is important both because it makes the present instant more enjoyable, and because it builds the self-confidence that allows us to develop skills and make significant contributions to humankind.” FLOW: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Today, August 10th the third novel in my Recycling Humanity young adult science fiction series comes out on Amazon! To celebrate this book launch (and my birthday!), the e-books of Recycling Humanity and Starlight Max are only 99 cents each! This special price will only be good through August 17, 2016 (in case you’re reading this in the future).

Biolab Zeg description:

A SECRET BIOLAB. DANGEROUS MERCENARIES.

ONE GIRL MUST LOSE EVERYTHING TO SAVE THE REST OF HUMANITY.

Time is running out for the last remnants of humanity. They must migrate to another solar system in order to survive. 17-year-old Sadie Kerum has been training to become an engineer and pilot, but she’s not very good at either job. Secretly, she’s found her passion working on the hidden Biolab Zeg, where Dr. Evans, a terraforming expert, is training her.

While helping rescue a shipful of orphans near Biolab Zeg, mercenaries attack Sadie’s ship. She must risk revealing her carefully held secret in order to save her precious cargo.

But the mercenaries aren’t the only dangers she must face. Sadie is soon caught in the middle of a deadly power struggle between people that want to alter humanity’s future at any cost. Only Sadie can sort through the secrets and lies to save humanity from the danger from within their own leadership.

I hope you enjoy these novels as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them! If you want to know what’s coming up next in the Recycling Humanity universe (I’ve got more exciting plans in the works), and get a free short story (which I won an Honorable Mention for in the Writers of the Future contest!) – then sign up for my newsletter at my website www.heatherleeyder.com or e-mail me at author@heatherleedyer.com and let me know you want to be added to my newsletter and updates.

In 2015 when I published Recycling Humanity and Starlight Max, it was only going to be the two books in the series. I didn’t want to do a trilogy since I have issues with odd numbers (I know, right?). But I’ve had many readers requesting more stories in the Recycling Humanity universe, and I love the characters and the world they’re surviving in, so I’ve decided to write at least two more books. Four is a great number!

The third book in the series will be coming out this July 2016. To celebrate and prepare for its launch, we’ve created all new covers! When I originally was going to have only the two books we did a special photo shoot with an amazing model for the cover. It was an incredible experience to go through the whole process. But now that I’ve introduced at least two more books to the series, I need covers that will all go together. And my graphic artist did an awesome job! Such fun!